It has been argued that Yoga is the most comprehensive approach to fighting stress ever invented because many yoga practices lead to mental relaxation and help digestion, absorption and healing take place.

Stress is a normal part of life, but the complexity of modern life, especially when faced with massive unknowns and surrounded by panic and worry, can overload the system. This can lower the immune system and also trigger over-thinking and anxiety. Stress can also make us more inclined to indulge in bad habits such as smoking, drinking alcohol, poor diet and doing less exercise.

Some of the most beneficial yoga practices to combat stress include asana (postures), pranayama (breath work), yoga nidra and meditation.

Yoga for stress

Swami Shivananda Rada explains that practising asana helps students become aware of stress in their body, and the increased mindfulness brought about by regular yoga practice can help people discover their problems.

He said: “Changes can then be made in life by a conscious decision on the basis of self-awareness. The inability to deal with stress and the helplessness many people feel can be counteracted by recognising the options and applying the power of choice.”

Pranayama is particularly good for calming an agitated mind. Meditation can reduce the build-up of stress by teaching us to stop and consciously clear the mind and emotions of negative attitudes the moment we become aware of them.

Manduka Stiles explains: “Practicing yoga helps us overcome obstacles within ourselves that may be preventing us from fully enjoying life and responding in beneficial ways to a variety of situations… practicing yoga with concentration and devotion can bring noticeable changes in our circumstances almost immediately.”

Asanas to combat stress

These asanas can help with stress and could be incorporated into a daily practice:

Uttanasana (standing forward fold)

This pose helps in preserving proper functioning of the nervous system by improving blood supply throughout the body.

Balasana (child’s pose)

Placing your head (third eye) down on the mat has an instant calming effect on the brain. It also eases stress and anxiety by allowing you to take time out from your everyday life and rest, plus it has a healing and restorative power that helps provide mental and emotional relief.

Setu Bandhasana (bridge pose)

This is a great pose for stress and anxiety. It helps control high blood pressure and reduces backaches, headaches, sleep disorders and fatigue.

Shirasana (headstand)

Shirasana revitalises the whole body and mind. It relieves anxiety and other psychological disturbances which form the root cause of many disorders… it also helps rectify many nervous disorders says Swami Satyananda Saraswati in Asana Pranyama Mudra Bandha.

Savasana (corpse pose)

According to David Coulter savasana will quiet the system and have a beneficial effect on organs and tissues throughout the body. It also promotes a state of deep rest that slows the breathing and lowers the blood pressure.

Navasana is a great pose for strengthening your hip flexors, these can become weak when we sit for long periods so Boat pose (Navasana) is great for counteracting the sitting position.

Warrior 1 (Virabhadrasana I) is another great pose (asana) for counteracting the sitting position. This asana opens the hip flexors and strengthens the legs.

Instructions for Warrior 1 (Virabhadrasana I)

Begin in Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Savasana).

Inhale: Step your foot forward between your hands dropping the back heal of you back foot to the floor. If you need some assistance with this drop your back knee to the floor and use your hand to help you step your foot forwards. Bend your front knee to 90 degrees or less (ensure you don’t bend your knee more than 90 degrees). Draw your knee and quadriceps upwards and straighten your back leg ensuring the back edge of your back foot stays connected with the floor

Exhale: Stay where you are with your hands on the floor on either side of your front foot.

Inhale: Raise your body to an upright position and sweep your arms overhead. Draw your tailbone towards the floor. Spin your little fingers toward each other and bring your hands together in prayer above your head. Keep your shoulder blades down your back. Shoulders are away from your ears and you have a nice long neck. Gaze up at your thumbs but be careful not to crush the vertebrae in the back of your neck as you do so.

Ensure your front shin stays vertical, widen your stance as needed to ensure your knee does not move forward past your ankle. Engage the muscles of your abdomen, lift mulha bandha, and lengthen through the sides of your body. Draw your lower front ribs in and down toward your belly. Lift the crown of your head towards the sky lengthening your upper body.

Hold for a number of breaths.

Exhale: Bring your hands down either side of your front foot and step back to downward dog

Repeat on the other side.

When to avoid Warrior 1 (Virabhadrasana I)

This asana should be avoided if you have:

• High blood pressure
• Heart problems
• If you have shoulder problems keep your raised arms parallel (or slightly wider than parallel) to each other.
• If you have neck problems keep your head in a neutral position and don’t look up at your hands.

How to adapt Warrior 1 (Virabhadrasana I)

If you are unable to do this pose practice Crescent Lunge. If you are unable to step to Warrior I from Downward Dog then you can step one foot back from standing. Ensure your feet are about a legs length apart.

The full Crescent Lunge pose

Benefits of Warrior 1 (Virabhadrasana I)

• Stretches the chest and lungs, shoulders and neck, belly, hip-flexors
• Strengthens the shoulders and arms, and the muscles of the back
• Strengthens and stretches the thighs, calves, and ankles

This pose is a great preparation for Warrior 1, it is also an intense hip flexor stretch. Crescent lunge allows you to go as deep into the hip-flexor stretch as you feel comfortable. Having your hands overhead also gives you the added benefit of opening the heart and chest – another area that gets tight from lots of computer work. A great way of counteracting the sitting position.

Instructions for Crescent Lunge pose

Begin in Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Savasana).

Inhale: Step your foot forward between your hands. If you need some assistance with this drop your back knee to the floor and use your hand to help you step your foot forwards.

Bend your front knee to 90 degrees or less (ensure you don’t bend your knee more than 90 degrees) and come on to the ball of your back foot.

Lift your back leg, drawing your knee and quadriceps upwards and straighten your back leg. A variation of this pose is to drop your back knee to the floor (if you haven’t already), if you do this you can un-tuck your back toes and rest the top of your back foot on the floor.

Exhale: Stay where you are with your hands on the floor on either side of your front foot, the ball of your back foot on the floor and your back leg lifted (unless you are doing the variation with the back knee on the floor).

Inhale: Raise your body to an upright position and sweep your arms overhead. Draw your tailbone toward the floor. Spin your little fingers toward each other, opening your arms so your palms face each other. Alternatively you can bring your hands to your hips or raise your arms to ‘cactus arms’. If your arms are raised overhead gaze up at a space between your thumbs but be careful not to crush the vertebrae in the back of your neck as you do so.

Ensure your front shin stays vertical, widening your stance as needed to ensure your knee does not move forward past your ankle. Lengthen through the heal of your back foot. Engage the muscles of your abdomen, lift mulha bandha, and lengthen through the sides of your body. Draw your lower front ribs in and down toward your belly.

Lift the crown of your head towards the sky lengthening your upper body and draw your shoulder blades down your back.

Hold for a number of breaths.

Exhale: Bring your hands down either side of your front foot and step back to downward dog

Repeat on the other side.

When to avoid Crescent Lunge

This asana should be avoided if you have:

• High blood pressure
• Heart problems.
• Knee injury
• Spinal injury

How to adapt Crescent Lunge

If this full pose isn’t accessible to you or you find balancing in the full pose a challenge you can drop one knee to the floor resting the top of the back foot on the floor. This can also be a nice variation if you are warming up for your practice.

There are also variations for the arms, you can leave your hands on your hips, bring you arms to ‘cactus arms’ or bring the hands overhead for the full pose.

Variation one: Crescent Lunge pose with back knee on the floor

Variation two:Crescent Lunge pose with hands on hips

Variation three: Crescent Lunge pose with cactus arms

The full Crescent Lunge pose

Benefits of Crescent Lunge

• Stretches the legs, groin, and hip flexors
• Opens the front torso, chest, and shoulder
• Helps the front of the body to expand, which increases energy and reduces fatigue
• Improves balance
• Improves concentration

If like me you are winding down from the weekend and preparing for Monday morning and another week sat at your desk then maybe, like me, you also have lower back issues. The BAD NEWS is it may be your desk job causing these issues… the GOOD NEWS is you can do something about it.

Over the next few weeks I’ll post a series of blogs looking at how to counteract sitting all day with some easily accessible yoga poses that can stretch and strengthen the hip flexors. This can help to better align your pelvis and start to ease those pesky back niggles.

When we sit all day our hip flexors shorten, this can affect the position of the pelvis, which then affects the position and movement of the lower back.

How do our hips work?

There are several muscles that cross the front of the hip to create hip flexion pulling the thigh and trunk toward each other creating your standard sitting position. The most important of these muscles is the iliopsoas, which is actually two muscles, the iliacus and the psoas, which lie deep in the back of the abdomen.

Yoga Journal summed this up really well saying: “If you looked at the front of a body with the internal organs removed, you would see the psoas lying alongside the spine, attached to the sides of the lumbar vertebrae. The iliacus originates on the inner bowl of the pelvis. Both muscles cross the floor of the pelvis, emerge at the outer edges of the pubic bones, and finally insert on the inner upper femur (thighbone).”

Why does sitting cause back problems?

It is often a lack of hip flexibility that causes problems. By sitting all day we leave the muscles in a contracted position for a long time, so they get shorter limiting your ability to fully extend (straighten) your hip.

If the iliopsoas and other hip flexors are tight they pull down and forward on the pelvis, which tilts the pelvis forward and compresses the lower back. This can cause overarching of the lower back or ‘swayback’ which can cause increased pressure on the lower spine resulting in discomfort and worse cases an increased risk of arthritis in those joints.
Yoga poses to counteract sitting

There are numerous yoga poses that can help.

Cresent Lunge pose

This pose is a great preparation for Warrior 1, it is also an intense hip flexor stretch. Crescent lunge allows you to go as deep into the hip-flexor stretch as you feel comfortable. Having your hands overhead also gives you the added benefit of opening the heart and chest – another area that gets tight from lots of computer work.

Find out in detail how to do Cresecent Lunge pose.

Warrior 1 – Virabhadrasana I

When done correctly warrior 1 is a very slight backbend which opens the hip flexors and strengthens the legs. As with Crescent Lunge it also opens the heart.

Find out in detail how to do Warrior 1.

Boat pose – Navasana

This is an abdominal and deep hip flexor strengthener. It can be incredibly intense so use a modified version if you find it too much for your lower back.

Find out in detail how to do Boat pose.

Reclining hero pose – Supta Virasana

This is an intermediate pose. DO NOT perform this pose unless you can sit your buttocks relatively easily on the floor between your feet and without any discomfort in your knees.

Bridge pose – Setu Bandasana

Yoga poses that focus on the lower back such as the Bridge Pose can help to alleviate back pain. This pose stretches and strengthens the back and abdominal muscles and opens the hip flexors allowing you to stretch the whole front of the body. It is also a great counter pose after Navasana.

Begin in a squat position with your feet together and your heels slightly lifted.

Inhale.

Exhale: Widen your knees and place your hands on the floor at shoulder width ensuring your fingers are well spread. Lift you buttocks, come onto your tip toes and place your shins on your arms with your knees as close to your arm pits as possible. Lean further forwards to transfer your weight from your feet into your hands. Lift your feet off the floor and hold, looking at a spot on the floor in front of you. More advanced practitioners might want to straighten their arms.

Hold for a number of breaths.

Exhale: Bring your feet back to the floor, lift your hands and return to the squat position.

When to avoid Bakasana

This asana should be avoided if you have:

• Hypertension (high blood pressure)
• Heart disease or cerebral thrombosis
• Carpale tunnel syndrome
• You are pregnant

If you suffer from spondylitis (inflammation of the joints of the backbone) only practice under the guidance of a trained expert.

How to adapt Bakasana

This asana is a beginner arm balance that can lead on to more advanced asanas. If you are worried about over balancing and hitting your face / head on the floor place a cushion or bolster in front of you to give you more confidence.

If you have problems lifting your feet up from the floor start by squatting on a block so you begin with your feet already a few inches off the floor.

If you are unable to raise both legs from the floor at the same time lift one leg at a time, keeping the other on the floor, and hold the pose in this position for a few breaths.

Benefits of Bakasana

• Strengthes the arms, especially the wrists and shoulders
• Improves balance
• Strengthens the abdominal organs
• Balances the nervous system
• Stretches the upper back
• Opens the groin
• Improves the digestive system
• Can reduce heartburn
• Over time this asana can make you feel strong and confident
• Regular practice can help you develop a deeper trust in yourself, which can help with the confidence to take up new challenges.

Begin in Dandasana (seated with your legs straight out in front).

Inhale: Bend your right leg and place the foot flat on the floor as close to the buttocks as possible.

Exhale: Turn the body about 90 degrees to the left so the chest comes beyond the bent right thigh. Bring your left arm across the body, bending at the elbow, and bring the upper arm to the outside of the right leg. Place the right hand on the floor behind you.

Inhale: Sit tall ensuring both buttocks have even contact with the floor.

Exhale: Use the pressure between the left arm and right thigh to rotate the spine to the right. Manoeuvre the left arm so the inner elbow comes around the shin and the forearm can reach the inner thigh. Slide the left hand around your back until you can catch the right wrist with the left hand.

Inhale: Stay where you are, ensure you are sat tall:

Exhale: Increase the twist (if comfortable / appropriate). You can increase the twist each time you exhale.

Hold for a number of breaths.

Exhale: Release the bind and return to Dandasana. Repeat on the left side.

When to avoid Marichyasana C

Avoid this pose if you have:

• High or low blood pressure
• Migraine or headache
• Insomnia
• Diarrhoea
• You are pregnant

How to adapt Marichyasana C

Marichyasana C modification

This asana can be very difficult to access. Many practitioners will not take the bind and will instead bring the upper arm to the outside of the leg and breath here increasing the twist with each breath.

It can be challenging to maintain an upright spine if one or both buttocks lift when one of the legs is bent. Use blocks to raise the buttocks. Use one at first, but if this is not sufficient arrange the blocks in a pyramid so you can sit on the top block and place the heal of the bent leg on the bottom block.

Benefits of Marichyasana C

• Improves the elasticity of the spine
• Removes the rigidity of ligaments connected to the ribs.
• Massages and stimulates abdominal organs
• Can help alleviate backaches caused by muscular tension and pain in the hips
• Massages the abdominal area
• Can help relieve constipation and other digestive problems.
• Combats fatigue
• Can help with lower back ache and sciatica